Page 1 of Love Me Dangerous

Chapter One

ZACH

I weave through the crowd,my focus on the girl in the center.

Something’s wrong.

The song ends, and the crowd erupts with cheers and hoots. I slip past a group of women bouncing up and down, their arms in the air. One woman gives me a fleeting glance, and her eyes widen. Maybe it’s the SECURITY printed in yellow across my shirt, or maybe it’s my determination, no doubt clear on my face.

Another song starts, and the woman looks away, drawn back to the show.

I keep moving, the music from the stage like thunder in my ears. They call us buzzers. Extra security for the shows. It’s easy work, until it’s not.

I sidestep an older couple with two preteen girls, the mom in a jeans skirt and the dad in Wranglers, their twin daughters in matching tank tops and cowboy boots. The mom’s gaze flicks from me to the asshole dancing too close to a young woman in a white sundress. Relief fills her expression.

Another sign my instincts aren’t wrong.

I keep moving.

The young woman is at the back of a group of friends, all facing thestage, singing and swaying to the music. He’s the tall one in a trio of guys directly behind them. When I first saw him pressed against her back, I assumed they were a couple. But she shoved him back, a scowl on her face.

It’s my job to diffuse the situation before it gets out of hand.

The tall guy pulls her against his chest again to grind into her from behind. She elbows him and tries to squirm away, her eyes tense. He runs his hand up her thigh, rumpling the hem of her dress. His friends close in around them like a shield.

Shit.

From the stage, the guitar solo rises to a fury, and the band joins back in, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. People are jumping and screaming all around me, the air tense with so much noise. The pit boss insisted we wear earplugs. He failed to protect his hearing when he was younger, and now his ears ring all the time. The earplugs are his way of looking out for us, but it means I don’t hear cries for help. I have to rely on other cues, like the one lighting up my gut.

I catch a flash of white sundress behind the fence of guys as I push between them, the scent of their musky aftershave mixing with booze and sweat. They jolt like I’ve shocked them, but they’re too late to stop me from grabbing the tall guy’s bicep. The night is warm, and his skin is hot to the touch. My firm tug on his arm pulls him off balance, and he has to let go of the young woman.

“What the fuck?” he barks over the music, trying to shake me off.

But I’ve learned a few things about survival since I fled Alaska, and he’s not getting rid of me that easily.

The goal, however, is to diffuse the situation without causing a disturbance that could escalate and put people in danger.

The tall guy tries to spin so he can face me, but my forward momentum is putting him at a disadvantage, and he stumbles. “You and your friends find somewhere else to watch the show,” I say, my mouth close to his ear as I keep him from falling on his ass.

“Why?” he fires back, his face pinched in anger. “I paid to be up front.”

The guy’s friends crowd around us, their aggressive energy makingthe sticky night air feel menacing. To my relief, the young woman has slipped back into her friend group. Safe.

“It’s that, or you’ll be asked to leave the show,” I say, still holding the tall guy’s bicep.

From my left, Tommy, another buzzer, is moving my way, a concerned look on his face. Backup. That’s good.

The friends see him, too, and it finally clicks.

“Whatever,” the tall guy says, and nods to his friends. They slip into the crowd.

Tommy nears, but I shake my head, and he nods in acknowledgment. Crisis averted. I watch the group of guys melt into the crowd before I turn away.

As I weave back to my post, the young woman in the white sundress looks over her shoulder. We lock eyes while one of her friends fiddles with the broken strap of her dress. The distressed look on her pretty face says it all.

Thank you, she mouths.

Before I can reply, the song ends, and the crowd around me goes wild. I lose the young woman in the sea of bodies jumping and twisting, shouting. I peer through the crowd, hoping to spot her, but she’s gone.

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